ctual culture. But they are an exception to the common
standard. The majority of teachers, however, are quite young. They are
preparing themselves for other duties, which they consider more
important to their own interests, if not the interests of the public.
Not experienced sufficiently in their art to excel in its ordinary
labors, they do not stand far enough above their pupils to succeed in
this higher and more difficult branch of instruction.

Before, then, moral education can be successfully promoted, the right
kind of teachers must be employed. There is but one way of obtaining
them, and that is by paying them liberal salaries. All are not
philanthropists. Here and there, it is true, may be found persons
disinterested enough to devote their energies to the public good, for
their daily bread alone. But it is the height of absurdity to expect
that men of talent and learning will continue in so arduous an
occupation as that of teaching for small compensation, when in less
laborious pursuits they can acquire opulence. The average pay received
by male teachers throughout the Commonwealth, as appears from the last
annual report of the learned Secretary of the Board of Education, is
$37.26 per month. The average length of schools being seven months and a
half, the yearly salary of the teacher would therefore be $279.45; out
of which he must pay for his board and all other expenses. Hardly
adequate to support one man respectably, it entirely excludes the
circumstance of his having a family, implying a self-denial of the
common uses of social life. The natural presumption is, that a teacher
is not exempt from the calamities that sometimes befall men; that he
buys a few books and a little stationary; that he is as unwilling as any
one to wear ragged clothes; and, uncertain of continued employment in
one place, that he incurs some expense in changing his locality. But the
standard price which he receives ignores any such presumption. In regard
to the payment of female teachers, we might suppose that a different
rule would prevail; that in a community where woman holds a high moral,
social, and intellectual position,--where marked deference is paid to
her character,--where the great superiority of her influence as a parent
and a teacher is acknowledged,--one might indeed suppose that she would
be liberally rewarded for her services, especially when those services
are rendered in her peculiar sphere of duty,--that of teaching.